Dev Baid has transformed his running this season with the NY Flyers’ Marathon Training Program. Last weekend in Boomer’s Cystic Fibrosis Run To Breathe 4-Miler he ran 28:26, dropping 4-minutes and 49-seconds off of his personal best set back in 2015. [Results]

After the race, Dev reported his results, “My VDOT projected time was 28:24. I clocked 28:26 but my watch showed 4.05miles. This is so perfect, your training plan is awesome.”

We were trying to come up with some famous line from the Grunge era because this guy’s recent race performance took us back to the early 90’s! Let us explain:

David Gaines of New York City trains with our Founder, Brian Rosetti and the NY Flyers’ Marathon Training Program. Last year, after his first marathon build-up with Run SMART the 63-year-old set a new PR and qualified for Boston at the Amsterdam Marathon (pictured here). Keep in mind that David didn’t get into running a few years ago, he has been running since he was in high school!

Generally, training for a marathon is not the best thing for your mile time, nor is getting older! Cathrine Wolden doesn’t seem to care for how things generally work.

At this year’s NYRR 5th Ave Mile she kept her PR streak alive placing second in her age group finish (40-44) and 9th female overall in 5:09! [Results] Last year she ran 5:17 and the year before 5:19. An amazing string of improvements for someone whose training has been focused on the marathon!

Cathrine works with Run SMART coach Alicia Shay, who apparently know how to consistently get faster for all distances at the same time! 😉

Run SMART client Cathrine Wolden set a new PR at the NYRR’s Coogan’s Salsa, Blues and Shamrocks 5k. The 41 year old from Pound Ridge, NY was 13th overall and 1st in her age group. Her official time was 18:25 (5:57 per mile), 20 seconds faster than her time last year in the same race! [Full results] We should also note that the first time Cathrine ran this race back in 2006 she ran 23:01 (7:25 per mile). She refuses to stop getting faster.

Run SMART client Rob DeLong has now been officially running road races for over a year. The 35-year-old from New York City ran the same race twice for the first time at the NYRR Ted Corbitt Classic 15k in Central Park this weekend. Last year he ran 1:30:27 (9:42 per mile) and we’re excited to post that he ran 1:13:52 (7:55 per mile) this year with his fastest mile coming at the end – 7:20! [Full results]

“Rob has gotten here through slow and steady progress, he never misses a day of training” said Run SMART coach Brian Rosetti. “Besides the 5th Ave Mile he had only averaged sub-8 in a 5k and 4 mile. This is hugely significant and he’s just in week 2 of his Boston Marathon preparation so I expect to see him get a lot faster soon.”

NYRR hosted a good debate about whether the Boston Marathon course should be legal for world-record purposes. As it stands the course is not legal because it’s point-to-point and its net elevation loss exceeds the IAAF’s limits. We asked some of our coaches to weigh in and it looks like they all agree with the current rule. Jack thinks without last year’s extreme tailwind, times would have been up to 5 minutes slower.

Jack Daniels: Some years ago I calculated the benefit of the overall downhills of Boston and it was published in Runners World. I went as far as to calculate the time loss during various uphill segments and the gain of various downhill segments. I have a copy of that publication somewhere and will try to find it. Obviously when you see a picture of someone with long hair running Boston and their hair is being blown out in front of their face, they have a pretty good tailwind. I actually have data on the benefits of tailwinds of different velocities and headwinds of various velocities and no question headwinds hurt more than tailwinds help. Something I have always felt might be a good question to ask is what time do you think they would have run last year on Boston if the course had been run in the reverse direction — any guesses here? I would certainly think more than 5 minutes slower.

When Rob DeLong signed up for private coaching six weeks ago his short term goal was to finish his first half marathon in 2:05. As a newbie runner the longest Rob had ever run in one run before getting started with Run SMART was 15k or 9.3 miles. We’re happy to report that Rob smashed his goal time by almost 10 minutes at the NYRR’s NYC Half Marathon last weekend.

His official time was 1:56:59 (8:56 per mile). Full Results. Rob’s Run SMART coach Brian Rosetti noted afterwards, “The game plan was to run conservative early and break the race up into three parts slowly getting faster as the race went on. He really nailed the pacing and now he’s feeling great and ready to focus on getting faster.” Rob’s 10k split was 56:44 (9:07 per mile) so he came home a lot faster over the second half of the race! And we should note that in his last 10k earlier this year he ran 58:05, so even while going out conservatively he still managed to set a new 10k PR during the race!

Run SMART client Amy Gordon set a new half marathon PR under very difficult conditions. With wind gusts up to 20 and 30 mph Amy still managed to drop 1 minute and 20 seconds off of her personal best. Her official time was 1:33:40 (7:08 per mile). To put this performance into perspective, Amy averaged 7:16 per mile at the NYRR Gridiron Classic 4M in early February.

This is a great sign for Amy and her coach Vince Sherry with roughly one month to go until Amy’s goal race, The Boston Marathon.

Run SMART client Cathrine Wolden set her 9th personal best since signing up for coaching with Alicia Shay last weekend at NYRR’s Coogan’s Salsa Blues and Shamrocks 5k. Cathrine won the 40-44 age group by 38 seconds finishing in 18:45 (6:03 per mile), 6 seconds faster than her previous best! Full Results.

Hector Rivera finished first in the 35-39 age group at NYRR’s Salsa, Blues & Shamrocks 5k and set a new 5k road PR of 15:11. Full race results here.

Since joining The Run SMART Project and working with Dr. Jack Daniels, Hector Rivera has now set new PR’s for 4 miles (19:45), 5 miles (24:54), 1/2 marathon (1:08:20), the marathon (2:22:15) and now 5k (15:11).